Month: January 2021

Public figures and ordinary Russians have appealed to President Vladimir Putin to expedite  housing promised to 1,500 elderly people whose parents were deported to the gulags under Stalin’s repressions. “They still can’t come back,” 107 prominent artists, academics and executives said in an open letter published in the Kommersant newspaper.  Nearly 83,000 people signed a…

Life in the Russian capital could return to normal by May, as long as people get vaccinated, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Thursday. Sobyanin said “about 140,000 people” had been vaccinated in Moscow so far, in the first update since the end of last year on the vaccination drive in the capital. But the figures…

Russia’s largest online retailer — Wildberries — has launched in Germany in the latest stage of its international expansion, the company said Thursday. Germany is Wildberries’ tenth country of operations and its first in western Europe. The firm will offer more than four million products to German shoppers and said it has a network of…

Russia on Thursday compared the decision of social media giants to suspend U.S. President Donald Trump’s accounts to a “nuclear blast in cyber space” with the consequences hard to predict. “The decision of U.S. internet platforms to block the head of state can be compared to a nuclear blast in cyber space,” Russian Foreign Ministry…

Russia’s prison service said on Thursday it was “obliged” to detain Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny who has said he plans to return to Moscow from Germany on Sunday. Navalny has been in Germany since late August after he collapsed on a flight from Siberia to Moscow and was flown to Berlin by medical aircraft.  Western…

Russia is building a coastal base for its unmanned underwater “doomsday nuke” to extend its lifespan, the Izvestia newspaper reported Thursday, citing specifications it said it had obtained. The Defense Ministry had indicated in 2020 that testing of the torpedo-shaped Poseidon drone was nearing completion but its launch was postponed to 2021. Russia was due…

Russians vaccinated against the coronavirus in the Sakhalin region of the Far East will be exempted from wearing face masks, its governor announced Thursday in contradiction to expert recommendations. Health officials urge vaccine recipients to continue wearing masks, maintaining social distance and steering clear of crowds until the shot builds up their immunity. “Everyone who gets…

A complaint brought by Ukraine against Russia alleging human rights violations in the Crimean peninsula in 2014 is “partly admissible,” the European Court of Human Rights said on Thursday. Ukraine alleges a pattern of violations of the European Convention on Human Rights by Russia in Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in a move never…

The official Twitter account for Russia’s coronavirus vaccine announced on Jan.11 that “over 1.5 million people have already been vaccinated with Sputnik V as part of the mass scale vaccination in Russia.” As the country seeks to vaccinate more people and claim one of the top spots in the global vaccine race, the tally, which…

Amnesty International said Thursday Azerbaijan and Armenia must immediately probe the use of “inaccurate and indiscriminate weapons” in heavily populated civilian areas during the recent fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Azerbaijan and Armenia in November signed a Moscow-brokered peace deal ending six weeks of brutal war over the breakaway Karabakh region after Baku’s forces…

Russia has confirmed 3,495,816 cases of coronavirus and 63,940 deaths. Jan. 14: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 24,763 new coronavirus cases and 570 deaths. Moscow has extended restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus until Jan. 21, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. All Moscow schoolchildren will be able to return to in-person classes next Monday. …

Russia placed Alexei Navalny on its federal wanted list late last year, according to an official decree published on the Mash Telegram channel and confirmed by one of Navalny’s lawyers Wednesday. The news comes as the opposition leader prepares to return to Russia, despite numerous legal threats, after recovering in Germany from what Western scientists…

All Moscow schoolchildren will return to in-person classes next Monday after coronavirus cases stabilized over the New Year holidays, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Thursday. He said all other restrictions that were due to expire Friday — including self-isolation for those 65 and older and remote work for 30% of employees — have been extended for…

President Vladimir Putin has on Wednesday ordered the mass vaccination of Russians against coronavirus amid reports of a slower-than-expected initial rollout. Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, who is in charge of Russia’s Covid-19 response efforts, said the mass vaccination will begin on Monday. “We need to move from large-scale to mass vaccination,” Putin said at…

Russian prosecutors have opened a probe into a state-run circus that featured a monkey in a Nazi uniform and two goats displaying swastikas during a Christmas performance. The prosecutor’s office for the Udmurtia region said in a statement it was checking after images emerged on social media of “animals dressed in blankets with Nazi symbols”…

The Russian ruble is the world’s most undervalued currency, according to the Big Mac Index, compiled by British newspaper The Economist. Based on market exchange rates, the Russian currency should be worth three times more against the U.S. dollar — 24 rubles per $1, rather than the 73.8 the currency was trading at Wednesday. The…

A libertarian U.S. think tank is investigating a former aide-turned-critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin for a blog post containing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and last week’s assault on the U.S. Capitol, Politico reported Tuesday. Cato Institute fellow Andrei Illarionov claimed in a Russian-language LiveJournal entry Friday that rioters who stormed the legislative…

Opposition figure Alexei Navalny will fly back to Russia on Sunday despite the threat of imprisonment upon his return, the Kremlin critic announced on Wednesday.  Navalny, 44, has been recovering in Germany following what western scientists determined to be poisoning by the Novichok nerve agent in August. He vowed to return to Russia after making…

A private Moscow clinic is in “direct negotiations” to bring the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to Russia before it receives official registration, a clinic representative told The Moscow Times on Tuesday, with first deliveries arriving as early as February. The Moscow branch of Israel’s Hadassah Clinic belongs to the Skolkovo medical network, which operates under a…

Russia’s cosmonaut training center said Tuesday it has begun vaccinating employees against the coronavirus ahead of future space missions. The press service of the Yuri Gagarin Training Centre told AFP that around 40 of its nearly 1,500 employees had received the first dose of Russia’s homemade coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V.  Named after famous Soviet cosmonaut…

Russia has sentenced three Crimean Tatars to lengthy prison terms for plotting to seize power by force and for their membership in a banned Islamic group.   Crimean Tatars, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority, have largely opposed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Russia has prosecuted hundreds of Crimean Tatars on terrorism charges, drawing criticism…

A Moscow court has reduced by three months the prison sentences of two activists jailed last year for plotting to overthrow President Vladimir Putin, news outlets reported Tuesday. Three young activists received real jail terms and four others were handed suspended sentences in August 2020 on accusations of plotting an uprising as part of an…

Russia’s prison authority has asked to replace Alexei Navalny’s suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case with a real prison term, the Kremlin critic said Tuesday, a signal that he could be imprisoned if he returns to Russia following his poisoning. Navalny, 44, is currently in rehabilitation in Germany following what European scientists called poisoning…

A Siberian shaman whose attempts to trek to Moscow and expel President Vladimir Putin from power ended in his arrest has announced his latest cross-country crusade, this time on horseback. Authorities in Russia’s Far East republic of Sakha declared Alexander Gabyshev mentally ill and placed him in involuntary confinement for attempting to journey to Moscow…

Russian artist and LGBT activist Yulia Tsvetkova has been hit with pornography charges a fourth time over artwork aimed at ending stigmas around the female anatomy, the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Tuesday.  Tsvetkova, 27, was first charged with distributing pornography online in June 2020 after sharing artwork of vulvas on the “Vagina Monologues” social…

Sardana Avksentiyeva was never a typical Russian mayor. In her two-and-a-half-year stint running Yakutsk, a remote, Far Eastern city of 300,000, the 48-year-old political independent rose to national prominence as her populist style, savvy social media use and unorthodox policy positions marked her out from the often uncharismatic technocrats who govern most Russian cities. However,…

Russian eco-activists will end more than two years of protests against a controversial garbage dump that would have seen tons of waste shipped from Moscow to northern Russia after its construction was halted. Russians nationwide have protested against plans to ship Moscow’s trash to remote regions since fall 2018 over environmental concerns, with a massive…

Encrypted messaging app Telegram has become the second-most downloaded app in the United States after President Donald Trump and his supporters were deplatformed in the wake of last week’s deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, The Daily Telegraph reported Monday. Telegram’s downloads rose as Twitter and Facebook banned Trump while Google and Apple removed conservative…

Algeria and the State of Palestine have approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund marketing the jab announced this week. Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) CEO Kirill Dmitriyev said that the countries are the first African and Middle Eastern nations to issue emergency-use authorization approvals.  Dmitriyev said deliveries to Palestine,…

Russia has confirmed 3,448,203 cases of coronavirus and 62,804 deaths. Jan. 12: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 22,934 new coronavirus cases and 531 deaths. Russia has extended its suspension of flights with Britain through Feb. 1 due to Britain’s surge in new infections linked to a new strain of Covid-19 believed to be more infectious.…

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck early Tuesday in northern Mongolia not far from the border with Russia, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. The epicenter of the quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (six miles), was located 33 kilometers south-southwest of Turt, U.S. seismologists said. The epicenter appeared to be located…

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh was still not resolved as he met the leader of his country’s arch foe Azerbaijan in Moscow on Monday. President Vladimir Putin hosted the heads of the two former Soviet states for a rare trilateral meeting and urged them to negotiate further steps in a…

A Swedish court on Monday convicted a Russian citizen of the attempted murder of a blogger from Chechnya critical of strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov, alleging high-level backing for the attack. The assault on Tumso Abdurakhmanov took place in his apartment in the Swedish city of Gavle in February 2020, when the accused struck him in…

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said on Monday he expected U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to extend a landmark arms agreement with Russia and urged the two sides deepen arms reductions. The New START Treaty is the Cold War rivals’ last remaining nuclear reduction pact and is set to expire Feb. 5.  The fate of the…

Russia will trial a one-dose version of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, officials said on Monday, as they aim to provide a stopgap solution for badly hit countries. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which financed the development of the two-dose Sputnik V jab, said it was also financing clinical trials of “Sputnik Light,” a less…

Moscow plans to expand its residents’ digital profiles to include data on their incomes, school grades and pets, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday, citing public documents. Moscow City Hall currently collects the gender, age and income level of residents signed up to its mos.ru municipal services website and as part of its monitoring systems. In…

Man-made fires have burned down forests and killed endangered animals at a protected Russian nature park on the border with China and North Korea, Russian activists say. Animals including Far Eastern forest cats as well as several endangered species either burned alive or died by asphyxiation while endangered plants such as relict oaks burned to…

The billionaire leader of Georgia’s ruling party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is widely seen as the Western-backed country’s most powerful man, announced Monday he was quitting politics. Ivanishvili made the announcement after his Georgian Dream party claimed a narrow victory in a tightly contested parliamentary election last year that sparked protests. “My mission has been accomplished,”…

Sardana Avksentiyeva, the popular independent mayor of one of the world’s coldest cities, has submitted her resignation nearly three years after defeating a Kremlin-backed incumbent for the role. Avksentyeva, 50, became the first woman mayor of the Siberian city of Yakutsk in September 2018 elections that drew international attention for being free and fair and…

Moscow on Sunday confirmed its first case of the new UK coronavirus strain, despite an earlier decision by officials to suspend flights from Britain to stop the mutation reaching Russia.  One person returning to Russia from the UK was found to have been infected with the new strain, the head of Russia’s health regulator Rospotrebnadzor…

Populist Sadyr Japarov was on the path to an easy win Sunday in Kyrgyzstan’s presidential election, the first vote following recent political upheaval in the Central Asian country. Results published by the ex-Soviet country’s Central Election Commission (CEC) showed Japarov with close to 80% of the vote after an automated count. A referendum held in…

Russia has confirmed 3,401,954 cases of coronavirus and 61,837 deaths. Jan. 10: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 22,851 new coronavirus cases and 456 deaths. Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed by phone the potential for joint production of a coronavirus vaccine, the Kremlin said.  Hungary will not purchase the Sputnik V…

Three people were killed after an avalanche swept through a ski resort outside the Arctic city of Norilsk overnight, Russian investigators said Saturday. The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was notified at 00:30 local time that an avalanche had buried four buildings under snow at the Otdelnaya Gora ski complex in the…

Three people have died in a mid-air collision between two light aircraft near St. Petersburg, Russian media reported Friday. One of the planes landed safely with its pilot unharmed.  Interfax, citing Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, said the crash occurred at an airfield that hosts regular competition aerobatics events next to the Leningrad region village of…

Russia has suspended its electronic visa system until further notice because of the coronavirus pandemic, tourism authorities have said. Citizens of 52 countries, including EU member states, China and India, were expected to be able  take advantage of e-visas from Jan. 1, 2021. However, most foreigners are still unable to enter Russia after it banned…

Russia has confirmed 3,355,794 cases of coronavirus and 60,911 deaths. Jan. 8: What you need to know today Russia confirmed 23,652 new coronavirus cases and 454 deaths. Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed by phone the potential for joint production of a coronavirus vaccine, the Kremlin said.  Hungary will not purchase the Sputnik V…

A Russian hacker was sentenced to 12 years in a U.S. prison Thursday for consumer data theft worth $19 million from 100 million customers of over a dozen financial service companies, the Justice Department said. Andrei Tyurin, 37, pleaded guilty in 2019 after his extradition from the country of Georgia the previous year, admitting to…

Russia on Thursday pointed to the storming of the U.S. Capitol building as evidence of America’s decline, with officials saying its out-of-date electoral system and deep divisions had left its democracy “limping on both feet”. Under banners reading “Storm of the Capitol” and “Chaos in Washington”, Russian state television showed rolling images of mobs of…

President Vladimir Putin made no statement on the unprecedented chaos in the United States when he spoke briefly with journalists after attending an Orthodox Christmas service, while Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the U.S electoral process is archaic and prone to violations. A rampaging mob of Trump supporters on Wednesday stormed a session of Congress being held…